


Three Sentence Ficlets (Harry Potter)

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, 3 Sentence Fiction, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Aunt-Niece Relationship, Aunts & Uncles, Baby Names, Birthday Presents, Books, Cynicism, Double Drabble, Drabble, Dysfunctional Family, Fluff, Fridge Horror, Fridge Logic, Friendship, Gen, Librarians, Libraries, Magical Artifacts, Prompt Fic, Rainbows, Silly, Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters, Slice of Life, Surprises, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2018-02-22 06:29:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2497961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tiny ficlets written for various iterations of the Three Sentence Ficathon, hosted by rthstewart and caramelsilver.</p><p><b>1)</b> Someone will always try to revive the Triwizard Tournament. <b>2)</b> Baby names are serious business, except when they're really not. <b>3)</b> "The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." <b>4)</b> The difference between nephews and nieces. <b>5)</b> Luna gives Hermione a confusing birthday present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. why break a winning streak?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [betony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betony/gifts), [RuanChunXian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuanChunXian/gifts), [Idhren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idhren/gifts), [caramelsilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramelsilver/gifts).



> You will note that I didn't manage to keep all of these to three sentences. I do try, but structural restrictions are not my strong point. *sigh*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone will always try to revive the Triwizard Tournament.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 3/27/2013 for [betony](http://betony.dreamwidth.org) in response to the prompt: _[Harry Potter; Fleur Delacour& Viktor Krum & Harry Potter; the next Triwizard Tournament](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/89310.html?thread=3029726#cmt3029726)_.

"Fancy a private wager?" Harry whispers from the corner of his mouth, careful not to move his lips enough for anyone with Omnioculars to see as he and the other (surviving) champions wave gamely from seats in the gilded balcony that overlooks one of Beauxbatons' many elaborate courtyards.

Fleur and Krum exchange a long stare under cover of turning and waving at various sectors of the crowd, favoring students and spectators alike with false, professional smiles.

"Called on account of death," they say in chorus, and Harry cannot stop his own plastic smile from twisting into something painful and true.


	2. Cat Among the Pigeons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baby names are serious business, except when they're really not. Background Harry/Ginny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 2/15/15 for [ruanchunxian0](http://ruanchunxian0.livejournal.com) in response to the prompt: _[Harry Potter, Harry, naming Albus Severus](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/119267.html?thread=3866339#cmt3866339)_.

"Yes, absolutely, let's do it," said Ginny through a mouthful of the toast and marmalade Harry had made her as a midnight snack.

"--and I realize it's asking a bit much to name our child after Snape," Harry continued, plowing determinedly through an obviously memorized speech, "but he wasn't all horrible just like Dumbledore wasn't all good, and I think it will send a useful message about prejudice to-- wait-- you don't mind?"

Ginny set the remnants of her toast onto the arm of their battered sofa, lifted her aching feet onto the coffee table, and grinned: "Of course I mind a bit, but everyone else will mind so much more -- can't you just _picture_ the headlines -- and when have you ever known me to stand in the way of excitement?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Particularly observant readers may have noticed that this ficlet is also posted separately on AO3 at [this URL](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3490442). That is because I don't always realize I should organize things until long after the fact. *sigh*


	3. gentility is relative

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 11/29/15 for [idhren24](http://idhren24.livejournal.com), in response to the prompt: _[Harry Potter, Madame Pince, user-centered institution](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/150194.html?thread=4556722#t4556722)_.

Her library serves two mutually incompatible purposes: to provide appropriate instructional aid for underage wizards, and to hold the most complete repository of magical knowledge in northwestern Europe. Irma has petitioned for _decades_ to split the collection -- or at the very least, move the restricted section into a separate room where she can establish security protocols with proper teeth -- but those two purposes are written into the school charter and would need a unanimous vote from the Board of Governors to make the most minor official alterations, and Dumbledore won't circumvent them on this issue.

Perhaps the next Headmaster will be more open to the notion that the Founders never anticipated the effects of so many magical books confined in such close proximity. Until then, Irma does what she can to protect her books from her students, and vice versa.

She has managed thirteen years since the last accidental death.


	4. in a yellow wood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The difference between nephews and nieces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 12/4/15 for [caramelsilver](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com), in response to the prompt: _[Harry Potter, cisgirl!Harry, what changes?](http://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/150194.html?thread=4768690#t4768690)_

She has Lily's eyes, but her father's big ears and hopelessly cowlicked hair overshadow them -- not a pretty child in the slightest, Petunia thinks, and ten gets you one she'll need glasses by the time she starts school; there's nothing about her to make Dudley feel insecure the way Lily made Petunia feel shabby and wanting just by breathing. She might have her mother's quick wit, and of course she'll have inherited magic from both sides, but... but Lily spun butterflies out of sunlight when they were girls, and made Petunia bounce one time instead of breaking her arm when she fell from a tree, and so magic in and of itself can't be _wholly_ pernicious, just what it does to those who think a bit of power means they can lord themselves above everyone else; perhaps if she teaches her niece to see the dangers of the magical world as well as its surface temptations, to know what killed her parents, that won't bring disaster down upon her own son.

Petunia sets up a crib in the spare room and tucks Harry (dreadful nickname, she thinks; pity Angharad is such a mouthful and hasn't any other obvious shortenings) to sleep with the smallest and least-loved of Dudley's toys; she won't love the girl -- not now, maybe not ever -- but there's a vast kingdom between love and hatred, and if nothing else, she'll have the satisfaction of taking better care of Lily's daughter than Lily would ever have managed for Dudley in return.


	5. practical magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna gives Hermione a confusing birthday present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written 12/29/17 for anonymous, in response to the prompt: [Any, any, jar of rainbows](https://caramelsilver.livejournal.com/151620.html?thread=6121540#t6121540%20).

"Happy Birthday; I made you a jar of rainbows," Luna says, and hands Hermione a jam jar filled with shards of broken glass; bemused, Hermione blinks, then decides to offer thanks now and figure out what the gift _actually_ is later when she won't cause offense or disrupt the party Ron and Harry have managed to surprise her with.

That evening in her Diagon Alley flat, she casts every spell she can think of on the jar, even going so far as to check whether there are wizarding folktales about glass seeds that sprouted into light, but to all appearances Luna simply handed her a jar of rubbish; she leaves it on the kitchen windowsill for lack of better options, since it would be rude to toss it out for at least a year.

When she stumbles into her kitchen the next morning in search of tea and toast, the room is filled with splintered light, brilliant and fiery as if she's standing inside the heart of an opal, and Hermione can't help laughing at the realization that Luna -- Luna Lovegood, of all people! -- gave her a completely Muggle gift that was somehow more magical than all the others.


End file.
